SimpleBrowser returns empty html - php

Question

I am using SimpleBrowser that is a part of SimpleTest PHP framework.
The idea is to imitate user interactions with the website and record returned HTML code into a file for further comparison. But something goes wrong here as empty HTML is sometimes returned.
getTransportError() returns Nothing fetched
It happens in completely random places and I can't use back() function because most pages are submitted forms.
require_once('simpletest/browser.php');
class TesterBrowser extends SimpleBrowser
{
/**
* Test the page against the reference. If reference is missing, is it created
* Uses md5 checksum to check if files are identical
*
* #param string $forcename Optional. Substitude autogenerated filename.
* #param boolean $forceRef Optional. Force file to be saved as the reference
*
* #access public
*
* #return void
*/
public function testPage($forcename = "")
{
//who called me?
//$callers=debug_backtrace();
//$whocalledme = $callers[1]['function'];
//get the current source
$html = $this->getContent();
//generate filename
$filename = empty($forcename) ? preg_replace('/[^\w\-'. ''. ']+/u', '-', $this->getUrl()) : $forcename;
$filename .= ".html";
//is there a gauge?
if(file_exists("ref/".$filename) && filesize(dirname(__FILE__)."/ref/".$filename) > 0)
{
//is there a difference
file_put_contents(dirname(__FILE__)."/actual/".$filename, $html);
if(filesize(dirname(__FILE__)."/actual/".$filename) == 0)
{
return false;
}
if(md5_file(dirname(__FILE__)."/actual/".$filename) != md5_file(dirname(__FILE__)."/ref/".$filename))
{
echo $this->getUrl() . " (" . $filename . ") has changed \r\n";
}
}
else
{
file_put_contents(dirname(__FILE__)."/ref/".$filename, $html);
if(filesize(dirname(__FILE__)."/ref/".$filename) == 0)
{
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
/**
* Output the string to the terminal
*
* #param mixed $string String to output
*
* #access public
*
* #return void
*/
public function output($string)
{
echo date("d-m-Y H:i:s") . " - $string... \r\n";
//update date so that it will be the same on every page
exec('date -s "24 JUN 2013 10:00:00"');
}
/**
* Restore the server date using external NTP server
*
* #access public
*
* #return void
*/
public function restoreDate(){
$this->output("Restoring the date&time from NTP server");
exec("ntpdate 0.uk.pool.ntp.org");
exec("hwclock -systohc");
}
}
And the way tests are performed:
class Tester
{
public $browser = null;
const BASEURL = "http://ticketing/";
function __construct(){
$this->browser = new TesterBrowser();
$this->browser->setConnectionTimeout(180);
//get the list of class method to be run
$methods = array();
foreach(get_class_methods($this) as $var)
{
if(0 === strpos($var, 'test')) //they all start with test
{
$methods[] = $var;
}
}
$methods[] = "cleanUp";
//now we need to run these methods
foreach($methods as $m){
while($this->$m() == false){
$this->browser->output("Empty page, trying again");
sleep(5);
}
}
}
//index page
function testGetIndexPage()
{
$this->browser->output("Getting index page");
$this->browser->get(self::BASEURL);
return $this->browser->testPage();
}
//try to enter wrong password
function testWrongPassword()
{
$this->browser->output("Entering wrong credentials");
$this->browser->setField("username", "wrong");
$this->browser->setField("password", "wrong");
$this->browser->clickSubmitByName("submit");
return $this->browser->testPage("wrong-credentials");
}
//Delete ticket though admin
function testDeleteTicketThroughAdmin()
{
$this->browser->output("Deleting the ticket through admin page");
$this->browser->setField("bulk[]", "375341");
$this->browser->setField("bulkaction", "delete");
$this->browser->clickSubmit("Do Action");
return $this->browser->testPage("deleted-ticket-admin");
}
//Restore the date
function cleanUp()
{
$this->browser->restoreDate();
return true;
}
}
$tester = new Tester();
There are of course much more test performed and this is a stripped version.
I have googled a lot about this problem, there seems to be no adequate documentation whatsoever.

Answer 1

Solved. It was a timeout issue although for some reason no adequate error message is implemented.
$this->browser->setConnectionTimeout(180);